


grey, calico, black, orange

by Serie11



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Development, Developing Relationship, F/F, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Golden Deer Route, Fluff, Gen, Just Add Kittens, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-26 14:18:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20931617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serie11/pseuds/Serie11
Summary: Marianne is in need of someone to help her look after several young kittens. Hilda can't say no to an opportunity to ignore her assignment and help her girlfriend at the same time.





	grey, calico, black, orange

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pleurer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pleurer/gifts).

Hilda is in the library (yes, she’s not particularly happy with it either, but unfortunately this assignment isn’t going to do itself. And she’s tried asking Ignatz and Raphael to help her with it, but Raphael is stuck too, and Ignatz had told her that she should go and read a book herself) when Marianne carefully slinks through the doorway. Immediately and easily distracted by her girlfriend’s appearance, Hilda waves her over.

“Hilda,” Marianne says quietly. “Can you do something for me?”

“Sure,” Hilda says, surprised into agreeing readily. She can’t remember if Marianne has ever really out and asked her for anything before.

Marianne is carrying a sling of some kind, and she carefully dumps it onto Hilda’s lap. Hilda shifts to adjust as the sling starts…moving.

“Uh, Marianne darling,” Hilda says, sweetness in her tone. “What… is this?”

The sling _meows. _

“I found several kittens scattered throughout the entrance hall,” Marianne murmurs. “I collected them as fast as I could – luckily before the Knights came in from a patrol. If I hadn’t been quick enough…” She wraps her arms around herself.

“You were quick enough,” Hilda reassures her. She carefully balances her valuable cargo. They’re old enough to have their eyes open, but not old enough to have much coordination in their attempts to crawl out of her lap. “Look, they’re all here.”

“They’re all there,” Marianne repeats, stronger. “Can you look after them while I try to find their mother? She should be around the monastery somewhere…”

A chance to look after cute kittens and ignore her assignment? How could she say no?

“Of course I will!” Hilda says, smiling up at Marianne. “You leave this _all _to me, and take all the time you need.”

“Thank you, Hilda,” Marianne says gratefully. She turns and scurries out of the library. Hilda moves the fabric aside to peer at the kittens. There are four kittens, one grey, one calico, one black, and one orange.

“Well aren’t you just the cutest things ever,” Hilda croons at them. The kittens show no signs of having heard her, instead continuing their attempts to awkwardly crawl out of their safe nest. “Now, we can’t have that,” Hilda tells them. She carefully bundles them up so that she can see them, but also so that none of them are going to fall out of her lap.

She leans back in her chair, content to watch the kittens and ignore her assignment.

* * *

“Hilda?”

Hilda sighs and looks up at Claude. His arms are crossed, and his eyebrow is quirked. Classic behaviour from him, an attempt to get her to feel bad about something. Well, this time it’s not going to work.

“Yes Claude?” she asks, smiling sweetly.

“Why do you have a bag of kittens on your lap?”

Hilda reaches in and scoops out one of the kittens. It meows quietly and wriggles in her grasp, but she’s got a good enough grip that she’s not going to drop it. “They’re cute, aren’t they? Why don’t you hold this one for a bit?”

“I’ve got work to do,” Claude deflects. “And so do you.”

“With all the time that you spend in the library, I would have thought that you’d already completed this assignment,” Hilda tuts at him, still offering the kitten.

“I have already finished the assignment,” Claude tells her. “But that doesn’t mean there isn’t other work to do.”

“You always find work where there doesn’t have to be any. Plus, you never let anyone else help with what you’re doing…” she trails off.

Claude scoffs. “Are you offering to do extra work? Who are you and what have you done with Hilda?”

“I’m not offering,” Hilda scolds him. “I’m just saying. You’re making things harder on yourself than they need to be, and I don’t even know why.”

Claude shakes his head. “You don’t need to know, Hilda.”

Hilda bites down on her urge to pry further. Claude _is_ hiding something important, she just knows it. “Well then you should relax for a bit. With a cute kitten!” She holds out the kitten again.

“No, thank you,” Claude sighs.

“Claude!” Hilda says, scandalised. “Don’t tell me… you don’t like cats?”

“I don’t have time for cats,” Claude corrects her. “And don’t change the subject. Our assignment? The one that’s due tomorrow? Are you going to finish it? ”

“The professor is just going to have to accept that I couldn’t do it, due to important and very pressing reasons.” Hilda deposits the orange kitten back with its siblings.

“I’m not sure Teach is going to like that,” Claude says lightly.

Hilda resists the urge to stick out her tongue at him. “Aw, worrying about me? That’s so sweet, Claude.”

He puts a hand on his forehead, and she tries not to laugh.

“Just a warning,” Claude says. “But it seems you have it all… under control.” He says the last two words gingerly, like he’s not sure they quite apply.

Hilda nods. “Don’t worry, Claude. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Claude rolls his eyes, but leaves her to her cute kittens, and her thoughts about what he could be up to.

* * *

“What do you have there?”

“Hey, Edelgard,” Hilda says cautiously. She hasn’t had much of a chance to interact with the Imperial princess, but she’s enough of a noble to know that good relations built here are things she can lean on later in life. And if a bit of work now makes a lot of things easier down the road… well, Hilda _can _do work. When it suits her.

“Lady Edelgard, please do not be distracted.” Hubert is always so tense. Hilda wonders if he does it on purpose, or if it’s just because he can’t think about much outside of Edelgard.

“But they’re so sweet!” Edelgard says, swooping down to kidnap a kitten. It’s the black one, and it’s silent as it regards Edelgard with as much suspicion as a week old kitten can. Edelgard tucks it against her chest and mumbles something that Hilda just can’t hear.

“They are pretty cute,” Hilda says. She’s not normally into petting all the cats around the monastery, but it’s hard not to be smitten when Marianne asked her, and when they’re keeping her from her work.

“I completely agree,” Edelgard says, authority ringing in her voice. “Hubert, you simply must learn to appreciate kittens.” She gives the kitten to him, and Hilda can see the clear distaste on his face.

“…Yes, my lady,” Hubert says. Hilda has to admit that she’s impressed with the amount of disdain he’s packed into his voice. Edelgard huffs and steals the kitten back.

“I simply don’t understand how you do not like them.”

Hubert says nothing, but he doesn’t need to.

“I’m just minding them until Marianne finds the mother cat,” Hilda tells them, trying to break up the moment.

“They shouldn’t be parted from their mother at such a young age,” Edelgard agrees. Something dark flashes across her face, but before Hilda can poke at it, she places the kitten back on Hilda’s lap, and takes a step back. “I hope you find her soon. Come, Hubert.”

Hilda watches as they retreat, and turns over disjoint puzzle pieces in her head. Relationships are one way to build influence – but secrets are another.

* * *

“Hey, Dimitri.” Hilda greets the prince cheerfully. He pauses as he walks back her table, peering at the mewling bundle on her lap. Hilda sips the drink that Hubert had brought her, stiffly stating that it was from Edelgard. Another interesting piece to find a place for.

“Hello Hilda,” Dimitri says. “Why do have so many kittens?”

“Marianne found them scattered all throughout the entrance hall, and now she’s out trying to find their mother,” Hilda explains. “Look how cute they are! Do you want to hold one?”

“Ah, as much as I’d like to, it would be an unwise idea,” Dimitri says regretfully. “I am actually allergic to cats.”

“Oh no!” Hilda says. “That’s just too bad. You’re really missing out, you know.”

“I can still gaze upon them,” Dimitri counters. “And be glad that they have such a dedicated protector.”

Hilda leans her head on her hand and blinks up at Dimitri, channelling her charm for all she’s worth. “Aw, thank you! It’s not a very hard job, but _someone _has to do it.”

“And I hear you are excellent at dodging responsibility,” Dimitri says wryly. “An interesting choice for a noble.”

“Well, you know things are a bit different in the Alliance,” Hilda says. “And my brother does more than enough work for the both of us.”

“General Holst is a force to be reckoned with,” Dimitri agrees. “Although… I’ve heard whispers that you are not quite the delicate maiden that you claim.”

“My professor doesn’t go easy on me,” Hilda sighs. “Axe training this, flying training that… I didn’t think coming to the Academy would be so much work!”

“If you say so,” Dimitri says, but there’s something in his eyes that tells her that he doesn’t quite believe her. Hilda sets her jaw for a second and marshals herself.

“I do say so,” she says firmly. “And I’m sorry to hear about your aversion to kittens. I think your life would be much better if you just cuddled one.” She picks up the grey kitten and snuggles it, just to prove her point.

“Likely, you are correct,” Dimitri says. “But I have work to do before the day is gone. Farewell, Hilda.”

“Bye!” Hilda calls out after him. She hasn’t had the chance to have many one on one conversations with Dimitri… he’s more observant than he looks. Oh, well. She’ll just have to prove him wrong by being lazy and doing no work whatsoever, and continuing to cuddle these kittens.

* * *

It’s well past sundown by the time Marianne finds her way back to the library. Hilda is glad for the drink that Hubert bought her, and is kind of wishing that some of her other classmates had come in so she could pester them about finding her dinner. Of course, most of them have already completed the assignment, so they’re not in the library studying… a bunch of nerds, the lot of them.

“You’re back,” Hilda says. Marianne has a large calico cat curled up against her chest, but she immediately pounces on top of Hilda when she sees her kittens. Hilda accepts the heavy weight as the kittens start meowing immediately, demanding attention from their mother.

“I’m sorry it took so long,” Marianne says. “I was looking everywhere for the mother cat, but she was hiding in the rafters of the stables… Dorte told me where to find her, when I went to talk to him.”

“It’s good that you found her,” Hilda says. “And looking after them wasn’t hard at all. They tried to escape, they napped, they got petted by a few people… a very enriching day for them.”

A smile flashes across Marianne’s face, gone fast enough that Hilda can’t appreciate it fully. “I’m glad to hear that. You must be hungry, though.” Her eyes drift to the books scattered across the table. “And you finished the assignment?”

Hilda sighs, acting more put out then she really is. “Well, I _have _been trapped here, for _hours, _with no real way of procrastinating… I finished it because doing nothing is more boring than doing boring work.”

“Of course,” Marianne says fondly. She competently picks up all five cats from Hilda’s lap, and Hilda jumps to her feet. “It’s good that you finished it – now we can go to the dining hall and enjoy dinner.”

“If there’s even anything left,” Hilda groans. She piles all her books up and shoves her assignment into her pocket.

“If there isn’t, I’ll make you something,” Marianne offers. She looks down at the bundle of animals in her arms. “…Thank you for helping me today.”

“Of course,” Hilda says, wrapping an arm around Marianne and guiding her out of the library. “I was really happy when you asked me to do something, you know. Any time you need something, I’m more than happy to help out.”

Marianne blushes, enough that Hilda can see it even in the low light given by the candles in the corridor outside of the library. “Okay. But even so, I want to thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Hilda says. The calico kitten pushes its head up so that Hilda can see it, and Hilda catches it before it tumbles to the ground. It has the colours of all of its siblings – black, grey, orange. But it’s tempered by white, as well. She thinks about the kittens, and about what she learned from the next leaders of the world today, and how that was more valuable than any assignment. “Besides, I got something out of it too.”

“Oh?”

Hilda grins at Marianne before leaning over to place a kiss on her cheek at the same time that she nestles the kitten back safely in Marianne’s arms. “I got to look at cute kittens all day.”

Marianne huffs a laugh, and leans into Hilda’s embrace.

**Author's Note:**

> *gives marihilda rights*
> 
> hope you enjoyed!! this was super fun to write :D


End file.
